Scanners are electronic devices used to read or scan information from barcodes and/or radio frequency identification (RFID) tags associated with packages or other items. For example, such scanners may be used in retail, warehouse, factory, or other environments by employees, contractors, personnel or other such users, to read or scan barcodes, RFID tags, or other information from retail packages or other items, and may be used in applications ranging from retail sales, inventory management, shipping and tracking, and for a variety of other applications.
Some scanners may incorporate multiple, different scanning technologies and related hardware to perform different functions. For example, a scanner may contain both an imaging barcode reader for scanning barcodes and an RFID radio for reading RFID tags. A problem may arise, however, because these different scanning technologies typically operate independently and create issues with the type of, or amount of, information scanned or read (e.g., information read or scan from products in a particular environment). For example, independent operation of an imaging barcode reader and an RFID reader generally results in vastly different data capture ranges because of the underlying and different physical capabilities or limitations of the underlying hardware. For example, an RFID reader of a scanner generally operates independently of other hardware the scanner, where the RFID reader often picks up stray RFID tags causing false positive reads, and, which causes unwanted data to be read. This is especially problematic in retail environments where customers or other individuals may move through high traffic areas, such as point-of-sale (POS) lanes, where scanners are located, causing the scanners to activate, and, therefore read or scan at times that are unintended.
In addition, scanners with multiple, different scanning technologies and related hardware (e.g., imaging barcode reader and RFID subsystems) typically suffer from increased usage of electricity required to power the multiple scanning technologies and related hardware, where, e.g., running both an imaging barcode reader and an RFID reader generally results in wasteful power consumption.
Accordingly, there is a need for solutions that solve issues regarding scanners that incorporate multiple scanning technologies and related hardware, for example, via scanning devices, and related methods, for enabling RFID sessions based on imager based object detection.
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The apparatus and method components have been represented where appropriate by conventional symbols in the drawings, showing only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present invention so as not to obscure the disclosure with details that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the description herein.